Vermont Daibymen's Association. 57 



senses, he ought to go out behind the barn and administer to 

 himself a good sound kicking. 



But will that husband uUimately perform the Httle duties 

 required of him? AVill he take counsel of that good wife and 

 in most cases abide by her advice? Will he make her a sharer 

 of his hopes and ambitions, his joys "and his sorrows, and withal,, 

 a sharer in the profits of the farm instead of throwing her a dollar 

 once in a while on her application, much as he might fling a bone 

 to his dog? He will, if she is the right sort, and most good 

 women are. He may strut around at town meeting or at an 

 auction and proclaim to his fellows in a pompous voice that 

 he is boss in his own home ! but he isn't, and away down in his 

 heart he knows he isn't. Not that I would have man exercise 

 undile humility ; there is such a thing as overdoing the matter. 



Laying aside the question of who should be boss in a well 

 regulated family, 



"Let us go back to the shadv woods, 

 The orchards and fields of clover, 

 Let us return to oiu^ childhood's days, 

 And in fancy live them over." 



No matter what our childhood may have been, no matter 

 what privations we may have imdergone or what hardships we 

 may have endured during that period of our existence, we,, es- 

 pcciall}' those of us on whose heads the frosts of autumn have 

 begun to fall, one and all look back upon the period of our child- 

 hood as the happiest of our lives. Having never been a city 

 child, I cannot speak from exiicrience, but I cannot imagine how 

 the life of a child brought up in a large city can compare with 

 that of one country born and bred. The play-ground of the 

 former is the side-walk and the gutter, with an occasional outing 

 in the city park, all his strolls for pleasure, all his goings and 

 comings are confined to pavement and flagstones, his skv is 

 bounded by brick and stone. Environments are artificial and 

 unnatural ; he soon becomes wise to the works of men, but he 

 cannot by himself find out what God hath wrought. On the 

 other hand the country child is born in the very lap of nature 

 and he soon begins to partake of all her gifts. For him exist 

 land and water, earth and sky. To him belong the shady woods 

 with their teeming wealth of sights and sounds ; his is the 

 blossom crowned orchard, the rushing trout streams, the wav- 

 ing grain field, hill, mountain and plain. He is heir to all the 

 earth and the fullness thereof. The world is his playground and 

 he reigns a king. Properly nurtured, trained and educated, he 

 3nd his kind become in manhood veritable kings, for it is a 



